insurrección

The struggle against mining

On December 19 in the Argentinean province of La Rioja, members of the Assembly of Self-Organized Neighbors were brutally removed from a public ceremony held by president Cristina Kirchner, after unfurling a banner and passing out fliers against the effects of mega mining on the region.

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The Canadian transnational mining corporation Barrick Gold suspended its operations in North Mara gold mine, in Tanzania, after 400 people confronted the security staff and assaulted the place, causing damages worth 15 million dollars.

According to the mining corporation’s spokesperson in Tanzania, the incidents took place on Thursday, when the crowd entered in the open pit gold deposit Nyabirama.

According to the Tanzanian Daily News, there were shootings of civilians in response. Democracy Now reported one person was killed by a bullet.

Mapuche Community Rejects YPF-Pluspetrol in Patagonia

Mapuche community Inkaial Wal Mapu Mew from Patagonia, Argentina, denounced the decision taken by the provincial government to grant Ñirihuau hydrocarbon basin to YPF-Pluspetrol. The community issued a communique to reject the measure because it undermines their rights and goes against their “ancestral thinking and worldview”.

“Our people has already suffered in other communities the deplorable consquences of oil. All they left was destruction and death”, the indigenous people expressed in their statement.

Lawsuit Against Shell Due to Environmental Damage in Nigeria

For the first time in history, giant oil company Royal Dutch Shell will have to appear in court in the Netherlands, due to charges presented against them for environmental damage in Nigeria.

The lawsuit was filed on Friday in The Hague by four Nigerian citizens, Friends of the Earth Netherlands and Friends of the Earth Nigeria. The plaintiffs are fishermen and peasants from the Niger Delta area, who have been affected by the oil spills caused by Shell activities.

Trial against Chevron over brutal repression in Nigeria

Last week, a trial agains oil giant Chevron began in a San Francisco federal court, in the US. The company is accused of collaborating with the Nigerian police in the brutal repression of a protest in Niger Delta.
Nineteen people are suing the US oil corporation for the incident that took place in 1998, when the police and the Army killed two people and injured other two during a peaceful protest outside Chevron’s off the coast oil rig.

Guatemalan Government Grants Mining Licenses Without Regard for the Peoples’ Opinion

Despite the population expressed its rejection to mining in tens of popular consultations carried out in Guatemalan municipalities, the Ministry of Energy and Mining granted several mining exploitation and exploration licenses in Huehuetenango department. The residents of Guatemala rejected this development model in a press conference held last week.

The mining threat to indigenous communities across the Americas

“It is a form of cultural genocide when mining corporations come tearing into our territories and dividing our communties”.

A seminar titled “Land and Territory. No to Mining” was held on Wednesday as part of the Americas Social Forum that is taking place in Guatemala. The activity was organized by the National Peasant and Indigenous Coordination (CONIC).
Indigenous communities and organizations of all the Americas attended the seminar.

The business chambers expressed their firm opposition. They handed out leaflets against the passing of the law until the time of the vote. But the efforts were insufficient. With a unanimous vote, the Parliament of Cordoba province, Argentina passed a law banning open-pit mining.

The exploitation of uranium and nuclear minerals will not be permitted. The ban applies to the stages of prospection, exploration, exploitation, extraction and storage.

Similar provincial laws were passed in Mendoza, Chubut, Rio Negro, La Pampa and Tucuman.

US oil corporation Chevron is one of the largest companies of the field. It carries out oil exploitation activities all over the world. Besides the fact that it is one of the world’s largest corporations, the company’s name is usually associated with a record of environmental and human rights violations and its complicity with several totalitarian regimes.

A community consultation on open-pit mining exploration and exploitation was carried out on Saturday in Jacaltenango municipality – in Huehuetenango department, Guatemala.

Reporter Jose Bernardino Francisco from Radio Stereo Azul told Real World Radio that the result of the consultation was against mining activity.

The reporter said over 27,000 people expressed their opposition to mining exploitation in Saturday’s consultation. “This shows that noone agrees with the presence of mining corporations in this Guatemalan region”, he said.